Both SiteGround and HostGator some some of the cheaper hosting companies out there. But HostGator goes for the lower end of the spectrum, and SiteGround goes for the mid-level, value business owner.

If you’re all about value, I’ll tell you right now – go with SiteGround.

If you’re all about the absolute cheapest possible option (and you can deal with some hiccups) – try out HostGator.

SiteGround Pros

Excellent customer service (probably the best)

Host unlimited websites

Cloudflare integration for fast speeds

Free SSL with Lets Encrypt

Staging website for development

However, SiteGround’s sleeker, more modern website may appeal to start-ups and younger companies. Their reviews amongst tech bloggers are higher than those of HostGator. Their wide range of customer service tools and options offer smaller and less experienced users an easy comfortable experience. They are quickly growing and replacing other web hosting services for many companies, including HostGator.

HostGator Pros

Often really cheap discounts (just $2.75 to start)

24/7 customer support

45-day money back guarantee

99.9% uptime

Cloud hosting starting at just $4.95

Dedicated WordPress hosting starts at just $5.95

HostGator is also a more established service that has more than 9 million domains and 400,000 customers globally which may appeal to larger companies who want a proven service with many options. They are PC Mag’s Editor’s Choice for novice webmasters, though their accessibility and user-friendliness are debatable.

The prices for each service differ greatly, especially if you are considering Dedicated hosting, HostGator offers a much lower price at $76.56 compared to Siteground’s $229.00. HostGator’s other service prices include WordPress: $5.95 and VPS $9.98. Their Cloud hosting prices are Hatchling $5.95/mo Baby $6.95/mo or Business $10.95 Siteground offers web from $3.95/mo and Cloud from $60.00/mo. Siteground also has options for Joomla specific hosting services at the following prices: StartUp $3.95/mo GrowBig $7.95/mo GoGeek/mo.

When weighing your options VPS vs. Cloud services is another factor to consider. HostGator may be the better option due to their cheaper VPS option. It provides a separate server for your business’s applications and programs which supplies a higher level of privacy, security, and control for larger businesses.

Both companies boast excellent customer service. Each has a ticket creator, Livechat, and forums to assist customers with their issues. Siteground has updated wait times for all of their customer service options and claims their services are faster due to in-house support. Phone in support is a rare and convenient feature as well. They also help with issues that they say other companies won’t including, popular script extensions, plugins and templates, and investigating and fixing application-related issues. Their ratings, based on 573 Siteground reviews are 4.98/5. They also have easily accessible tutorials, webinars and an intuitive Setup Wizard service that are available to anyone. They cater to companies new to the world of web hosting with all of their support and round the clock services.

HostGator has secure Customer and Support Portals for their customers. Their website is complicated and difficult to navigate with multiple links to support, help pages, and forums. There are multiple complaints about long wait times and even hang-ups.

Both services have proven uptime rates of 99.9% and that is the same for all plans no matter the level. SiteGround has been tested recently at 100% uptime. Their custom programming predicts and fixes issues before they rise.

SiteGround vs HostGator Site Speed

HostGator’s speed has proven to be a bit faster at 1.25 seconds hosting speed compared to Siteground’s 1.5 seconds. A minimal difference that probably varies all the time. Siteground has several features that increase speed including SSD drives for all shared and cloud plans. Their SuperCacher works with WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal applications.Their server NGINX claims to speed up the load of static content on all of their sites.

SiteGround Conclusion

Overall, SiteGround seems to be the best option for startups, marketers, bloggers and small businesses. Their more modern technology ensures speed and a better overall hosting experience. Their interface is user-friendly and simple. Customer service options are streamlined and convenient as opposed to HostGator, which requires a lot of clicking around to find what you need. They have a wide variety of options for different customer needs., but not so many that companies new to the system get lost or overwhelmed. They are designed especially for use with WordPress, Joomla, and Magento which caters to newer companies using these systems. PCMag stated, “If you have modest Web needs that are likely to stay modest, you may be better off sticking with SiteGround, as it is a bit limited in scope.” Customer reviews greatly favor Siteground on multiple platforms, especially tech bloggers.

HostGator Conclusion

HostGator may be the better option for more experienced web developers and larger companies. They have many options to choose from and offer some perks like free site backup, unlimited monthly data transfers and unlimited storage and domains that will benefit larger companies that use those tools. They also have a Weebly website builder that is very convenient with lots of easy to use tools.

If you are looking for a fast, convenient, current hosting service that will walk you through every step and be there for any and every question or problem, SiteGround is the best choice. On the other hand, HostGator has tons of variety, a solid history, and tools for the advanced webmasters out there to use.

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